Clown Goby - how long till they spawn

[chris melb]

Just wondering how long it takes for an adult pair of clown gobys to spawn provided conditions and food are right. Is there a wait period, i.e time need for them to settle in a tank before they will spawn? Are there any indicators that they are about to spawn?

Regards

Chris

[sebae09]

good topic , id actually like to know any info on breeding clown gobys, and do you know how to pair them up? sorry for hijacking the thread

[Luis A M]

Search the forum,(those of you who can:) )
Seemingly they change sex,so any two will do.
Once they start spawning,they keep doing it every week or so.They both stay close to the nest,which hatch on the 6th night.The male takes care of the nest and the female gets plump the day before,with a short ovipositor extruded.
They spawn on a dead Acropora branch,if provided,otherwise on other available substrates.

[sebae09]

awsome, thanks for the info.

[chris melb]

I have searched the forums, any two will do to form a pair, and they will spawn on most surfaces, but was just wondering Luis how long do they take before they spawn? im hoping i dont have to wait a year for them to start spawning, but they do have huge personalities, probably my fav fish, im feeding my CE, mysis and live BB.

[Luis A M]

I can´t say,but guess some few months.Many times they are spawning and we don´t notice it.See the pics and watch their behaviour.:)

[chris melb]

Will do thanks again for your help Luis, as i understand the male tends to the eggs, just like the clowns, any pre- spawning behvaiour? is it similar to clowns i.e flickering, im just wondering also is there a way to tell if they are carrying eggs, they are sort of semi-transperant fish, you would think that the 100 or so little eggs would be visible, in a clown goby. Did you manage to raise any clown gobys Luis? Ive read your posts, from memory Ediaz (RC name) has successfully raised them in the past. If i notice any behviour pre-spawing behaviour i will post my observations.

[sebae09]

Im picking up 2 in a few days so do you mind if i post my observations aswell?

[Luis A M]

Male just stays close to the eggs.As explained before,female´s abdomen looks distended the day before.I could not raise any,they´re very small and delicate.

[GreshamH]

Once started, they'll breed nearly to death. Like Luis, I had zero luck with growing out the fry :(

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/GreshamH/1059cut.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/GreshamH/IMG_0979eggcrop.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/GreshamH/IMG_0979crop.jpg

One thing, if there isn't any dead acro, they'll kill some to serve the purpose. They've killed around 20 branches in this aquarium thus far.

[Luis A M]

Awesome pics!:)
My pair spawns in the exact same spot every time,I imagined they all would restrain their "peeling"activity to theat limited area.

[chris melb]

That would be great sebae09, if you could post your obserbvations, ill do the same, try and add some pics were suitable. Looking forward to it.

[damer]

chris,

dallas on RTAW used to have a pair that spawned, maybe ask him a few things. he may even have it on his website.

[chris melb]

Hi Damer,

i did a search on RTAW nothing came up under "dallas" is this spelling correct, i searched by author, also do u have a link to his website

[damer]

sorry chris, Dr_DBW

here is a link for anyone interested. not a lot if info.

Spawning yellow coral gobies (http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=142837&highlight=spawning)

ill respond to your PM on rtaw soon

his website is

ozreef (http://ozreef.org)

[chris melb]

Thanks Damer, thats great info, hope this is helpful to others also. Right now im in the fattening up stage of keeping these little guys, buying them straight from LFS is a bit of worry, they need special care as they are not used to eating prepared foods, and take some time to adjust to captivity, ive heard of them not eating for upto a month or so. Ive been able to feed mine on live brine napuli, and now am starting to introduce CE to their diet. they are very thin with sunken stomachs.

For those of you who are interested in reading also found this by Henry C. Schultz III 'Lets Clown Around With More Gobies: The Gobiodon Species' 'Lets Clown Around With More Gobies: The Gobiodon Species' (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-10/hcs3/index.php)

[ediaz]

The way I pair mine , i get two of the smallest i can find and place them in a tank, they will ussually pair and will lay in few months.

Remove the spawning substrate to a larval tank the day or the hatch or a day early. Once they hatch add rotifers and greenwater, keep the water green for about 10 days. From day 4 and on change 20% of the water daily. Add enriched rotifers (with selco) twice a day.

Use a very brigh light over the tank, very bright.
Mine take artemia very late somethimes till day 25-30.

Ed

[aomont]

Which algae you use for the larvae ? Nanno ? Photoperiod 12L/12D or more light-time ?
Anderson.

[ediaz]

I use nano, i don't think it matters what you use.
14 hours beacuse thats how my room is set so I have time to do all, I dont think it matters also.

I leave a nite lite over the tank at night though.

Ed

[chris melb]

ediaz thankyou for your posts, very helpful and detailed, just a quick question, why do you emphasise the very bright light? is it just to concentrate the rots or for some other purpose.

Regards

Chris

[ediaz]

Gobies and dottybacks larvae are very attracted to light, if the ligh is not strong enoung they stay at the bottom of the tank and will not eat, a strong light keeps them close to the surface eating all day. I use 150 watts halogens for the dottybacks. Hatcheries that raise gobies use natural sunlight and even with the shadecloth they still get a lot of light.

Ed

[Luis A M]

Muy interesante,Ed!:)
Actually you seem to be the only one being able to raise clown gobies,must be Bill A school!:cool:
Chris,rots don´t concentrate with light.

[GreshamH]

Some are Luis :D (rotifers being attracted to light)

[Luis A M]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9532166#post9532166 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GreshamH
Some are Luis :D (rotifers being attracted to light)
I heard Randy saying exactly that in a speech...:D
They are not,I wonder how you find that,may be rots gathering at the surface under poor oxygen/water movement conditions.
You mean some strains are phototropic?:confused:

[GreshamH]

Yes, some are phototropic :D

I highly doubt in our case there would be any lack of o2 in any part of the sytem :D We pump a load of pure o2 into them to insure that. We test daily, so we know the saturation.

Water movement is a low boil, but nothing is stagnent.

When our lead scientist gets back from Japan, I'll get more specifics out of him re: this topic. He's far more experienced with this then I :lol: I have played with lights and collection of rotifers though, so I do have some experience with them being phototropic.

[chris melb]

Thankyou for that info Ed, that makes alot of sense, i always run a fair bit of light over a larval tank, i will be sure to make sure they are feeding, just have to get the pairs to spawn now.

Luis my rots do seem to be phototrophic, i use a light to concentrate them for harvesting.

[Luis A M]

In many years of working with them,I´ve never seen any being attracted to light,like bs,(meaning artemia,not disqualifying your opinion as bull produce:p )calanoid copepods or larval shrimp or fish.They are indifferent to light.Anybody growing rots could go and check with a light,and inform their finding here.(aren´t we hijacking with this?).
Light indifferent and light attracted strains? Hmmm,possible though unlikely.
You guys working with plicatilis and rotundiformis?.
Though rots have no eyes,I recently read they have some photosensitive spots.That could sustain your point. ;)

[chris melb]

Im working with plicatilis. I noticed though that if conditions are good, they are attracted to light, when starved and just after dosing with nano, they are more concerned about eating and arent as attracted to light.

[rbeleno]

Just on the topic, here are some pics of my Yellow Clown Gobies breeding with eggs. Some details...

- had first YCG about 1.5 years ago
- added second YCG around summer 2006
- started being friendly with each other within first week
- both are in display tank with all other fish and inverts
- they really paired up back in fall 2006 and would hang out in between rocks and some underhangings together - they could have already been laying eggs by then, but never really paid attention
- barely any sps in my tank except for a small frag or two I keep on a frag rack
- I started noticing weekly routines of them laying eggs around January 2007
- they started eggs on a leather frag that was in the open of every other livestock, especially shrimp... it would only last a day or two at most before disappearing (high guess as food for others)
- they then moved on to the underside of a cap which is more protected
- I gave a half hearted attempt to move the cap into a 10 gallon a day after I noticed them turning silvery with black spots
- only about 30 hatched
- they lasted only about 4-5 days on rots, but then I had to be away for 4 days and had no one available and aware how to attempt to take care of them
- they now lay eggs within the squares of a black egg crate rack and under some frags (easy to see with black rack)... don't have any pics of this... I think snails keep getting to them now
- I will probably make a more serious attempt later in Spring/Summer


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/54330Gobyeggs1.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/54330Gobyeggs3.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/54330Gobyeggs4.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/54330Gobyeggs5.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/54330Gobyeggs7.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/54330Gobyeggs8.jpg


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/54330Gobyeggs9.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/54330Gobyeggs10.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/54330Gobyeggs11.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/54330Gobyeggs12.jpg

Ron

[Luis A M]

Great pics,Ron!You used a macro with manual focus?.Was the nest close to the glass?

[rbeleno]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9542837#post9542837 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Luis A M
Great pics,Ron!You used a macro with manual focus?.Was the nest close to the glass?

Thanks Luis

Yup, macro lens - Canon 100mm.
When I took these shots, I'm usually rushing and not taking my time to setup a tripod or even control my breathing - it was done with manual focus for some. The nest wasn't close to the glass, but I couldn't take straight shots with the lens perpendicular to glass - I had to come a bit on an angle just to see the eggs.
All these factors contributed to some of the pics being unstable and not as clean.

If I have some time in the next week or so, i'll see if I can upload a video to Youtube and link it here to show some of the habits of the clown gobies while they mate and pick a spot to lay eggs.

Ron

[chris melb]

That would be great Ron, id love to see those vids, im interested in identifying behaviour of clown gobys prior spawning, although ive heard its similar to clowns, but given that they are so transparent i thought it might be possible to see them carrying eggs a day or so before release. I wonder if they produce eggs on a weekly basis, and then just swallow (consume) them if the conditions arent great (hope that made sense). But from your previous post i take it they didnt take long to spawn once introduced into your tank (~2-3months). Soon i should have 3 pairs (all kept in separate broodstock tanks) ill keep a record sheet, starting from today of what happened, then write up a log add it to RC.

[chris melb]

Im also wondering what is the smallest size tank they will spawn in? would 5gal be sufficient. Most people here have theres spawining in the reef tanks, ive heard they will spawn in a 10gal, but given they are so small would a 5 gal be ok, provided is plumbed to a larger system ofcourse

[Luis A M]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9548106#post9548106 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chris melb
Im also wondering what is the smallest size tank they will spawn in? would 5gal be sufficient. Most people here have theres spawining in the reef tanks, ive heard they will spawn in a 10gal, but given they are so small would a 5 gal be ok, provided is plumbed to a larger system ofcourse
I´m sure a 5gal will be perfect.My pairs spawn in 10 gal shared with clowns.;)

[rbeleno]

Here is a recent video the past week with them spawning on the front of the glass. I was fortunate to be around to catch them laying the eggs.

You can see them actually laying a few eggs around the 2-3 minute mark and I think again around the 6-7 minute mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrLM8uKGKjA

Ron

[chris melb]

Thanks Ron

There are some great pics and now a vid on this thread. Is this the same pair, are they spawning in different areas? Have you made any attempts to raise any of these larvae.

Chris